/plinky

Linux linker for x86 and x86-64

Primary LanguageRustApache License 2.0Apache-2.0

plinky

Caution

This is just a fun side project of mine. It is probably broken. I don't intend to provide any support or compatibility guarantee for it, nor accept third party contributors. Use it at your own risk.

plinky is an x86 and x86-64 ELF linker targeting Linux systems you probably should not use.

This is a side project of mine, with the goal of better understanding how linkers work. I am learning the world of linkers as I develop this, so parts of the implementation are probably incorrect or badly architected.

As an additional challenge for me, I am trying to develop plinky without relying on third party dependencies in build scripts and runtime code (dependency in tests are fine), because why not.

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT License, at your option.

Known differences with GNU ld

  • The lack of an entry point will result in an error, instead of following GNU ld's behavior of setting it to the first byte of .text, or to 0 if no such section exists.

  • The stack is marked as non-executable by default, and it can be set back to executable with -z execstack. Because of this, the presence or lack of a .note.GNU-stack section is ignored, and -z noexecstack does nothing. This follows LLD's behavior.